In her essay, “These Are My Children”, Christa Couture introduces readers to her sons, Emmett and Ford, and recounts how she has mothered and related to motherhood since their deaths. Here, she considers what’s changed and what hasn’t in the two years since her essay was published…

I’ve wanted to tell you something. At least to make some kind of record of this shift, these seismic waves.

As a songwriter, I’m pretty much an open book. The songs I record and perform are almost entirely autobiographical, literal and, I hope, conversational. I often joke that I’m not very imaginative and half-joke that I’m too self-involved to write any other way – but I like it that way. It gives me somewhere to put all these internal thoughts, step back and learn from them; to ask you a great big “know what I mean, bean?” and, thankfully, hear your reply. (more…)

Comrades! It’s been a long time and I’ve missed you too. Let’s catch up. First off:

I need your help! With your vote I could perform at Lilith Fair in Vancouver!

…12 years ago I was a teenager in the audience at Lilith Fair Vancouver. I loved it. I hadn’t even started to play guitar yet then and was far from sharing my music with the public. I was so inspired by seeing many of my favorite artists live. Being part of it now would be AMAZING but I need your help! The Fair is choosing ONE local artist from each city they stop in via a voting process online. At first I found the process kind of confusing so I will detail the steps here. Let me know if they don’t make sense. You are, as ever, the best.

Go to my artist pageÂ and click “make this my favourite artist” on the right. This will help my song come up sooner in the voting/listening.

At the top, click on “Judge” tab, then on the right “Lilith Fair Channels” then select “Lilith Local Talent Search: Vancouver”

Four artists come up for you to rate – listen to at least 15 seconds of each song (there’s some crap, and then there’s some gems you just might love)

Drag the photos to the right in your order of preference and click “Lock in Vote”. You’ll get another four artists.

You may go through a few rounds of voting on other artists before you get to a batch of four with me and my song “I Will” in it, so please keep voting until you do!

Once you DO see me, place me at #1 and then “Lock in Vote”

Know that your support means a lot to me. Thank you!

You can do this once a day if you want, but once in total is appreciated too. Please do so by May 24th when the top 20 will go onto the next round!

In other news… where have I been for the past year? I had a baby! Last May. And so it’s been a year of laying low musically – save for the many lullabies. Here on YouTube is a video of me performing at 8 months pregnant last spring, just before going into hiding with my wee new family. Now that spring has unfolded again, I’m starting to bring this YOU + ME part of my life back into focus. I have missed you guys and sharing my music with your ears in person.

I’m glad to be back at it and though I sometimes forget to send out these newsletters – Twitter gets the bulk of my attention (okay I’m maybe addicted), there’s the less often but occasional Facebook updates, and of course my sorely out of date blog -Â but I aim to send this newsletter out as often as there are performances/recordings/causes – the meatiest news – to share with you. I’ve a general rule of no more than one per month, but hopefully there will be enough going on that it’s not another year before we speak!